Windows XP VM will not load on Windows 8 Pro

Windows XP VM will not load on Windows 8 Pro

Hey Gang.
Here is an issue I have run into since I side graded to 8.1.Pro on one of my machines. I expect the other machine has the same issue but I mostly use 7 ATM. I have some XP virtual machines that were created by importing the image of XP into VMWare Player and now those VM refuse to run with the following error.
It is obvious the VM was based on the XP machine from Windows 7 Ultimate. How can I fix this as XP Mode does not install and Windows 7 is no longer on this machine so I can't point the program at the file on another OS drive?

Yes correct had the player, liked it so much bought Workstation. OK so if you find the base VHD, you can then copy it over to Windows 8.1 Program Files and BINGO the program stops complaining about the missing VHD but then states it cannot run as it is not allowed to.

I suspect this is Microsoft's doing. Another reason not to upgrade to Windows 8. You lose you Windows XP VM's. I guess I'll just put 7 Ultimate back on as there are no advantages to Windows 8.1 I can see. Thankfully one was a gift and the other was a cheap $15 upgrade.

try that first and see if it helps, Most of the time when I have a problem stating a VM I delete everything that is not necessary, If you look at Popeye's post the only necessary files needed are

Code:

.nvram
.vmsd
.vmx
.vmxf
.vmdk

I delete everything even the cashes folder and any other folder and it will usually start up fine. I also noticed that you are using 4 processors for it that is totally not needed for XP 1 cpu is just fine with 1 gig of memory

I suspect this is Microsoft's doing. Another reason not to upgrade to Windows 8. You lose you Windows XP VM's. I guess I'll just put 7 Ultimate back on as there are no advantages to Windows 8.1 I can see. Thankfully one was a gift and the other was a cheap $15 upgrade.

By default, XP Mode virtual machine consists of five files when installed and run first time, two of these are virtual hard disk (vhd) files. Additionally files exists if XP Mode is hibernated or the Undo Disk feature is enabled. The file names, extensions and default locations are:

This file exists only if so called Undo Disk is enabled in XP Mode settings

Before the XP Mode can be moved to another computer, you have to merge the base vhd with the personal vhd:

It seems that you have not done this, that you have only moved the base vhd which naturally cannot be run as stand alone virtual machine.

If you have access to your Windows 7 and original XP Mode, merge the disks first, import then to another virtualization program on another Windows setup. If you no longer have access to both vhd files on your Windows 7 setup, you are done, your XP Mode cannot be recovered.

What I did was to import the XP virtual machine into VMWare Player then upgrade to Workstation. I have other XP VM's and I also have another machine which loads the same VM fine. It would be a real PIA to have to recreate and reload all the software as a large part of the VM are games no longer working on 7.
See screenshot:

Here is the VMWare folder. It seems to need the XP Mode to run and under Windows 7 is a fully customized XP different to the actual XP mode on the Windows 7 XP mode

I am over to my Windows 7 machine which runs the VM and look to see how I can export it.

try that first and see if it helps, Most of the time when I have a problem stating a VM I delete everything that is not necessary, If you look at Popeye's post the only necessary files needed are

Code:

.nvram
.vmsd
.vmx
.vmxf
.vmdk

I delete everything even the cashes folder and any other folder and it will usually start up fine. I also noticed that you are using 4 processors for it that is totally not needed for XP 1 cpu is just fine with 1 gig of memory

Yes thanks for the input but in this case that is not the problem. Upgrade the VM is to change it to a Workstation 10 type file, completley unessecary in this case. The VM works on a Windows 7 machine with XP mode installed. VMWare uses the base file for something I am not sure what as it is unchanged and the files are in there own folder see screenshot.

Kari it is something to do with the way VMWare Workstation and the player use the XP mode Base mode VHD. It will not run 7's XP mode on 8 nor will it run the VM with an imported image. I have plenty of copies of XP so I'll work on this and figure this out. I'd like to kepp the VM for the old games. Why do they make these things so difficult?

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